Murtaza Sutarwalla

Murtaza Sutarwalla began his legal career in the upper echelons of international corporate law, representing major governments and billion-dollar companies from Washington D.C. to Dubai. His early training was rigorous and elite—drafting M&A contracts and advising on global finance—but a deeper calling eventually pulled him back home. “I was helping the rich become richer,” he recalls. “But I wanted to do something more meaningful with my law degree.”

Now a founding partner at ESS Law Partners in Houston, Murtaza brings the precision of a corporate strategist into the trenches of high-stakes plaintiff litigation. His background gives him a rare edge in personal injury, civil rights, and labor trafficking cases—especially when going up against powerful institutions or multinational corporations. He knows the architecture of corporate defense. He speaks their language. And he knows how to dismantle it.

Much of Murtaza’s current focus includes representing victims of human and labor trafficking—work he describes as both urgent and generational. With each case, he’s guided by something deeper than just law. “I believe every client that walks through my door was sent by God,” he says. “That means their case isn’t just business. It’s a responsibility.”

Murtaza also served in a senior leadership role at the Texas Attorney General’s office, overseeing major litigation on behalf of the state. There, he helped design and launch what would become the largest settlement in Texas history—a billion-dollar resolution against Meta for violating biometric privacy laws. In a twist of fate, he had helped write that very law decades earlier as a college intern.